I have worked with the Geriatric population at Sheppard
Pratt for a little over a year and during that time I have been exposed to patients
with eating disorders, Obsessive compulsive Disorders, Dissociative Identity Disorder,
depression, Dementia and Alzheimer’s.
My experience at Sheppard Pratt is a little different from
my experience at Spring Grove. I assumed that all psychiatric institutions were
the same and that they would be a lot like the ones I had experienced at
Sheppard Pratt. I was wrong, but I
decided to keep an open mind. The population that I would be working with are
diagnosed as having schizophrenia and I had little experience with working with
patients with this illness so I really didn’t know what to expect.
Upon entering I found that there was very little distance that
I could put between myself and the patients. As a result I immediately became
concerned about my safety and the safety of the staff. However, I found that as
long as I enforced boundaries and watched how the staff interacted with the
patients, I felt at ease. During this clinical I expect for it to hopefully improve
my nursing skills when it comes to communicating therapeutically and being effective when interacting with patients. One personal goal is to play the role
as the charge nurse and therefore, gaining an understanding of what it means to
be competent, a communicator and flexible while also providing high quality patient
care.
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